Cataract of criticism of Bolsonaro’s wife for getting vaccinated in the United States

“Getting the vaccine is a personal decision. My wife (Michelle Bolsonaro), for example, decided to do it in the United States. I didn’t take it.”Bolsonaro said in an interview published today by Veja magazine.

If she had wanted, the first lady could have been vaccinated in Brasilia, where vaccination for her age (39) has been available since July 23.

Although the Brazilian president did not say so in the interview, it is presumed that his wife was vaccinated this week in New York, where she traveled as part of the official delegation to attend the Assembly. General of the United Nations.

The procession returned without the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, who had to remain in quarantine, after testing positive for Covid-19. In the meantime, it was confirmed today that the MP Eduardo Bolsonaro, one of the president’s five children, also contracted a virus in the United States and is already receiving treatment in the Brazilian capital.

The first lady’s decision to be vaccinated in the United States was heavily criticized by Brazilian politicians and infectious disease specialists, who saw it as “absurd” and “an outrage” to the public health system.

“This scene of the first lady being vaccinated in the United States is unfortunate, it devalues ​​the health authorities, devalues ​​a conquest of the country which is already more than 30 years old, like the National Immunization Program”said the senator Randolfe Rodrigues, vice-president of the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (ICC) of the Brazilian Congress.

for his part, the senator Omar Aziz, The ICC president praised the first lady for getting the vaccine, then criticized her for doing so abroad. “Someone must have told him that the vaccine they are applying in the United States is the same one applied in Brazil,” he added wryly: “He could very well have been vaccinated in Brazil and shown it to everyone, to set a good example. If it had been, we would have seen an act of true patriotism, not lip service.”, according to the information portal G1.

For Renato kfouri, infectologist and director of the Brazilian Society of Vaccination, the decision of the first lady is “an absurdity”, while stressing that vaccines applied in Brazil are safe and there is no reason to apply them in another country.

An opinion shared by Rodrigo Stabeli, Researcher and director of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), the largest medical research center in Latin America, which underlined the value of the Brazilian public system.

“What is important to stress is that Bolsonaro is speaking with his supporters, people who, like him, believe themselves rich in Brazil and can take a first class plane and fly to the United States to do so. to vaccinate. Public health, here represented by La Fiocruz, Instituto Butantan and Anvisa, talk to the Brazilian people about protecting themselves from Covid with the vaccines available in the public system, which are of the same quality as those offered in other country, ”he said.

In his speech to the United Nations on Tuesday, Bolsonaro exposed his denial of Covid-19, defended the use of drugs of questionable effectiveness to treat it and opposed the so-called “health passport”.

With around 593,000 dead and more than 21.3 million people infected, Brazil is the second country in the world in number of deaths and third in cases, after the United States and India.

The country has around 213 million people, of which, according to official data, around 148 million received the first dose and 85 million are on the full schedule.